Chapter One:
The Sufferer
Tonight's the night. I can feel it. It's a Sunday late in the evening, who goes to school on late Sunday evenings? The extra weight from my gym bag is comforting. I take a left and pull up to the curb. Better to be a ways a way so no one knows it was me, or at least can't track my bike to me.
I cut the engine and put my helmet on the handlebars. The school is two blocks away, not too far but far enough that if anything happened no one would be looking over here.
I sniff and pull my jacket around me, walking down the sidewalk quickly. When I'm in front of the school I stop. I'd have to get on the roof. This should be fun. I jog over to the right side of the school and step back about 15 feet. Taking a deep breath I sprint forward, shoving my foot into the brick and reach for the side of the building. My heart nearly stops when my fingers slip, but I get a good grip and hoist myself up.
I find the ladder on the wall and climb up to the top of the school. The wind blows slowly, a good thing if I don't want to end up blind or alerting someone to me. I rest for a minute to catch my breath, scanning the area for anything to tether myself to.
"Aha, there you are." A metal rung placed firmly into the concrete for janitors so they can clean the windows. In a matter of seconds I have my gym bag on the ground, open, and pulling the harness out.
I get the harness on and tie the rope into the metal rung and make sure to sling my bag over my shoulder. The edge of the building and a 50 foot drop are beneath my feet. I take a deep breath and allow my body to fall over the edge. The rope jerks to a stop around the middle of the building.
"Good, now let's see how you all feel about the Signless now." I mutter under my breath. I pull on my dusk mask and blood red spray paint, shaking up the can. My eyes squint involuntarily as the red begins to shoot out of the can. Arching up and over my head, swinging slightly to the left, looping below me, and swinging to the right.
When I finish I push myself back and look proudly over my work.
"Hey you! What are you doing up there?" My heart stops. Below me a cop with a flashlight is jogging around in circles.
"Shit." I scramble to get the paint can back into my bag and drop it. Right now is not the time to worry about the paint can Kankri, get your ass out of there! A voice screams in my head. I quickly climb back up the side of the building and untether my rope, looking around frantically for the cop. Finally I tug the rope free and throw it into my bag. From the side I came up I can hear rattling.
"Fuck this shit." I run to the other side and half fall, half climb down the rain gutter. I hit the ground with a grunt and make a break for the street. The police car sits vacantly on the side, no lights, no other cops. This allows me to give a small huff of relief as I dash across the street and jump over a wooden fence.
Blue and green dance over the ground and surrounding fence from a pool. I jump over the next fence, my bag slapping the back of my legs painfully. Something on the ground moves. I freak out a little and stop, catching my breath. I look down to the moving object and notice it's a rabbit. Looking around more carefully I notice the yard is full of them. I may be a vandal but I'm not heartless. Have you ever stepped on a bunny and kept running? No no you haven't because YOU CAN'T. It's the rules of nature.
You can't just squish cute things and not help it. You just can't. Note to self, quit arguing at yourself because it's stupid. I shake my head and jump the fence to my left. Fucking miracles. Across the street is a small area of woods, no fence in front of me, and the house has no lights on. On the second floor is an open window.
"Fuck yes." I run and jump up reaching for the bottom branch of the tree below the window. It's a quick climb before I'm crawling through the window and falling to the floor. I look to the right and don't see a body in the bed. My eyes keep going forward to the desk at the foot of the bed. I freeze.
"Oh...my...god..." I can notice from the amount of air the kids taking in to know he's about to yell. Without thinking I tackle him to the ground and cover his mouth with my hand. He bites me, me pulling my hand away trying to hold down a shriek. He opens his mouth again. One idea pops into my mind.
I grab the kid's jaw and bite down on his bottom lip until I taste blood. He immediately shuts his mouth and attempts to pull away.
"Keep yo mouf shut and no un gets hurt." The kid shakes his head around and rolls us over.
"Let go of my lip you ass!" The kid elbows me in the chest, all air leaving me. "VRIS- ahhsjdb!" I pull his face back down and bite over his mouth, canines holding his skin above and below his lips. If he had piercings this would hurt like a bitch.
"I ornen you! Now hut up!" The kid stills above me. Our chests bump with every inhale.
"Bubby?" We both still, I take my teeth out of the guy's face. I turn my head left to the door where a , I'm guessing five or six year old, little boy holding a stuffed sea horse rubbing his eyes.
"Hey, hey, Dan what are you doing up so late?" Neither of us move. We continue to watch the little kid.
"I 'eard noises and thought tha' you'ere playin a game wid out me." My chest squeezes at the kid's innocene.
"No no, I'm not playing a game without you, I'm just..." the guy's eyes move back to me then to the little kid, "this is my boyfriend. Yeah. And we were..."
"Were you playin da fish game like mommy and daddy?"
"Yeah, yeah we were, we were playing the fish game. Right boyfriend?" The guy says the last part through clenched teeth.
"Uh, yeah the uh fish game." I look up confused but the guy was looking at his little brother again.
"You'wa bleedin. Are you sure you wa playin the fish game?"
"Of course see," the guy turns his head and presses his lips to mine, "fish game nothing else! So why don't you go back to bed okay Dan? If you need tucked in ask the spider bitch 2." The little kid seems to believe it and opens his arms wide. "Okay come here."
"Night bubby." The little kid runs forward and hugs the guy. "Night bubby's boy'fend." When he lets go of the guy he leans down and presses a wet kiss on my cheek then leaves.
As soon as the door shuts we both look at each other again.
"What are you doing here?" I wipe my mouth and sit up as much as I can with some dude on my lap.
"Running from the cops now get off of me." The kid seems hesitant, biting his lower lip gently. "What? Why are you making that face?"
"Well it's just..." the guy turns his head away, long bangs covering the side of his face, "I did a spell that would make my life love come to me and then all of a sudden you're here. It just seems too good to be true." I watch the kid for a few more seconds before worming my way out from under him.
"Cool, whatever but I don't hear the cops so I'll just go-" I'm halfway out of the window when the sounds of sirens start up. The kid yanks me back into his room right as a police car races pass the house.
"Why don't you stay here for tonight?" I look the kid up and down, eyes resting on the wounds around his mouth. I sigh and put my bag down.
"Go get some antiseptic, a bowl of warm water with a washcloth, some alcohol, the cleaner you idiot, some cotton swabs, and a q tip." The kid stares at me for a moment confused. "Now!" He jumps and leaves the room. A few minutes later he comes back with the items and sits them on the desk.
I turn on the lamp and tell him to sit on the desk.
"Sorry."
"Sorry?" The kid frowns at me. I take a cotton swab and put some alcohol on it.
"Sorry about your face. I couldn't have you giving me away though." He says oh. I carefully swipe over the marks with the cotton swab.
"God dangit that hurts!" I slap his leg and set the swab down.
"This will probably hurt more." I take the q tip and cover one end in alcohol. "Now stay still." I carefully clean the spots I had bitten. The kids arm shoots out and latches onto my arm. A familiar feeling passes over me. The time Karkat had fallen and scrapped his knee and I had to clean it. He grabbed onto me that day too. Carefully I remove his hand from my arm and intertwine our fingers, giving a small squeeze. He relaxes some and squeezes back.
"Almost done." Using my thumb I put a small amount of antiseptic on the wounds. Then I take the washcloth, wringing out some of the water, and begin to clean off the blood from his chin and cheeks.
"So you gonna tell me why you were runnin from the cops?" He's looking down, both hands playing with my fingers intertwined with his.
"Vandalism." He nods some looking around.
"Holy shit no way."
"What?" His dark blue, almost purple, eyes look into mine startled.
"You're the Sufferer?!" I freeze.
"H-how?"
"Your necklace, and your bag. I can see the ropes and red paint." He looks back to me and grins.
"If you tell anyone-"
"I won't I won't! But uh," The kid looks down sheepishly," I think I've seen you at school."
"Oh?"
"Yeah," he nods, "you're that cute kid from English. No, no wait I meant creep kid from English, y-yeah creep kid." His face flushes.
"Oh." I grin and look over him. "Yeah you look kinda familiar." He looks up again.
"R-really?! You mean you noticed me?" I can hardly stand to look at his large grin.
"I guess I mean. Aren't you that really smart kid? I think I paid you to do my work before right? Wizards kid?" He flushes again and smiles.
"Yeah! Your name, it's Kan something right?"
"Kankri, I am not a can, nor have I ever been." He extends his free hand to me.
"Cronus. Nice to meet you Kankri." I take Cronus' hand in mine, awkwardly shaking it from behind.
"Well you're all patched up. I guess I'll just leave now." I start to let go of his hand, but his grip tightens.
"Wait! Can't you...stay, for just a little while longer? Do you draw?" He gives me puppy eyes and I can't help nodding.
"Yeah. I draw." Cronus smiles again and hopes off of the desk. "Um, are you going to let go of my hand?" The kid looks like someone just kicked his puppy in front of a bus.
"Are you going to leave if I do?" For a split second I stop. He's afraid I'm going to leave? Sighing I shake my head.
"No. I won't leave." I can see the relief plastered on the kids face. Slowly I take my hand from his and grab my sketchbook and a pencil. Cronus moves the things on his desk around and also pulls out a sketchbook and pencil.
"So how old are you?" The fresh white paper in front of me is aching to be filled in with pencil marks and eraser bits.
"16, turning 17 in November." I don't know what I'm drawing but my hand places down line after line. "You?"
"Just turned 17 in May." This catches me off guard. I look over at the kid astonished. But neither of us talks for a while, just the sound of pencil scratching paper filling the air.
"So whatcha drawin?"
"What are you drawing?"
"I asked first." I stay quiet and stare down at the finished drawing of Cronus. I sign my name at the bottom followed by the date and time. "Wow that's really good!" I hadn't noticed Cronus flop over beside me. "Am I really that attractive? Heh well I'd be more so if I had my hair done but nope, " Cronus pushes his bangs to the left to try and keep them out of his eyes, "you had to get me like this."
"Well now that you've seen mine let me see yours."
"Uh, I don't think that's a great idea." Cronus is suddenly standing up, shifting weight from foot to foot.
"And why not?" Our eyes lock for a moment before I launch myself over the side of the bed and grabbing the sketchbook. Cronus tackles me from behind, trying to reach under me to grab the book.
"Give- me the book. Now!" I squirm for a few more seconds before going still. Everything stops.
"No." Cronus leans forward, hands in between my shoulder blades, pressing his weight onto me effectively leaving me breathless.
"Aw come on, it's a horrible drawing!" I roll my eyes at the whine and shift the book up so I can open it. "Hey!" Cronus tries to snatch it but I get on my knees and stretch my arms out so he can't reach. I flip from the back until I find the most recent drawing.
Cronus immediately stops as I scan the photo. It's a full body picture of when I was cleaning Cronus' wounds. Except from his point of view. The shadows, the light, the texture, all of it really really good.
"Wow Cronus...you draw, very very well."
"You really think so?" I tense a little when his chin rests on my left shoulder.
"Well of course. Don't! Just, don't tell anyone I said that. They'll think I'm weak. And I'm not weak." Cronus nods and flops down onto the bed, back against the wall.
"Well I don't know about you but I'm tired. So if you don't mind me, I'm going to bed." Cronus takes off his glasses and sets them on the nightstand. In a matter of minutes his breathing is deep and regular. For a while longer I flip through the pictures and am astonished to find quite a few, if not the majority, are all of me. I look back to the guy beside me and think.
Finally my head gets to swimming with any thought. I turn and set the sketchbook on the desk and click the lamp off. Somewhere in my mind I know I should leave but I can't seem to move. I flop down next to Cronus and wiggle under the covers. My eyes shut and sleep begins to wash over me quickly.
"Thanks for staying..." Cronus' voice is quiet, his arm wrapping around me. An overwhelming feeling of security fills me. But I don't fight it and I close my eyes again. Sleep awaits me with vigor.
AN: Hello lovelies. I am back to Homestuck with some cronkri. I hope you enjoyed, feel free to give me your opinions and be sure to favorite and follow :3 Also go check out nevereatdirt's stuff because she is a fantastic writer and has a story with this same prompt (she did it before me!) have a good day! ~Keeblo Ah sorry, the last bit was cut out for some reason so i had to go and reupload the chapter ovo enjoy the rest now !
